i put my heart and my soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process - vincent van gogh

I'm entering the birthday card below in Sweet Stamps July's Anything Goes Challenge.

 

Have fun, keep crafting and get messy my blogosphere friends.

the traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see - gilbert k. chesterton

Participating in this month's tim holtz 12 tags of 2016.

This is mr. holtz's inspiration:

And here's my version:

I had so much fun making the july tag that I decided to make a second tag with a slight twist.  For the second tag I added gesso to the tag first and removed the distress stain (broken china, cracked pistachio, hickory smoke, stormy sky) through a stencil (carta bella vintage airplane).  I die cut the word travel (tim holtz thinlit die adventure words script) and added a piece of burlap behind the tag and the journal word world to the bottom front.  I watercolour-resisted the globe (tim holtz schoolhouse blueprint stamps), added some staples to the top and bottom of the watercolour piece and wrapped the tag in thick twine.  Through the twine I wove chain and attached let's get lost and pack your bags charms with thinner twine.

Have fun, keep crafting and get messy blogosphere friends.

you can't blame gravity for falling in love - albert einstein

As you can see although there is less media used to create this birthday card (it's pretty much all paper minus some stickles, marvy snow pen and gelly roll pens), the layers are quite typical of everythingshetouches.   

If you're new to the blog you will quickly learn that I have a mad love affair with gorjuss girls.  I can design a card around these little treasures all day long.

I coloured in gorjuss i love you little rabbit with coloured pencils.  I know what you're thinking .. coloured pencils? but it has such an amazing consistent blended texture! how on earth can this be coloured pencils?  Ah, but they are coloured pencils.  I use a blending solution to gain that amazing creamy blended texture.  Yes, this is now at the top of the top five colouring techniques (sorry watercolour; still love you loads but you're now a close second).

Here's a close up of little miss gorjuss i love you little rabbit and rabbit.

I'm entering this birthday card in three challenges:

1.  Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge: July Anything Goes!
2.  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes 
3.  DL. ART July Linky Challenge: Anything Goes
  
 

you can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. you have to go to them sometimes - a. a. milne

Oi.  It's been five months since I've posted anything on the blog.  I'm not sure why I have found it difficult to post regularly (Instagram is feeling almost the same level of neglect).  Maybe it's just a matter of paying more attention to posting once the photos are snapped.

The post neglect is not for lack of crafting, that's for sure.  I have been a little crafting chipmunk.  Busy, busy, busy.  Which means one thing friends, you're in for a craft downpour here on everythingshetouches.  A craft downpour.

I created the background of this birthday card using bisters and tim holtz flower garden stamps.  The layered forest is a memory box series of dies: grand forest archway, medium forest archway and small forest archway.  Makes for a gorgeous layered forest, no?

The focal stamp is santoro mirabelle tell me something.  I'm obsessed with everything santoro.  My collection of mirabelle and gorjuss is outrageous.  I think they are simply elegant, beautiful and diverse stamps.  And yes, very easy and fun to work with.

Here's a better view of the background.  Bisters on watercolour paper equals gorgeous and quick backgrounds for any paper craft - cards, scrapbook, memory book or mixed media.  Amazing.  And I'm hooked.

Stay tuned folks.  More rain to come ..

a happy twinkie birthday

Twinkie is one of those precious little Stampotique stamps that make me so happy.  His joy is infectious.  I made this birthday card for one of Alex's friends at school.

The brick wall was embossed on gold mirror paper and coloured in with permanent markers.  Tim's crazy bird accessory presents were also stamped, cut and coloured in using gold mirror paper.

The background was torn from an old book now used for .. well, my crafting amusement and eventually a memory book (whenever I get around to it).

 

 

I'm entering Twinkie in the:

 

1.  Craft Stamper February 2016 Text Me! Challenge

2.  SDC February Mardi Gras Challenge



 

you can't blame gravity for falling in love - albert einstein

Valentine's day is just around the corner and I get to share my love with a whole craft room of very talented ladies.  Here is the card that I put together for my stamp club Valentine swap:

 

As you might have guessed, for those who know me, there are a few layers involved in this little 5x4.

 

Layer one: Tim's tissue paper torn and randomly glued onto grey cardstock

Layer two: acrylic paint through heart stencil

Layer three: washi tape

Layer four: die-cut heart

Layer five: die-cut love

 

All mounted on my cheat: a pre-fab ombre card purchased at Michaels.

 

I'm entering this not so cute card in:

1.  Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenges Challenge #10 Grungy Love

2.  Craft Stamper February 2016 Text Me! Challenge

3.  Simon Says: Have a Heart

 

 

 



holiday cards 2015

2015 was a very interesting and challenging year in my personal life and I'm not sorry to see it all end.  Have I been able to learn from the challenges?  Mostly, yes.  I think I've changed a great deal this year; mainly for the better.

I haven't really given 2016 a lot of thought yet, however, I do have some exciting new projects coming up in the first part of the year that I will share and I have decided that crafting needs to be more of  a marathon than a sprint.  Crafting in 2015 came and went in huge bursts of energy and frenzy.  I'm still a member of the stamping club and creating for 40-something members had been a bit of an endeavor with long bouts of rest and breaks from crafting in between.  It has been just like a swimmer coming to the end of the race, for which she was unprepared, and gulping for air until the next race.

Here are the card templates for the 2015 holiday season.  There are two versions of the light garlands; one without any additions and a second with stickles and glossy accents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year fellow blogospere friends.  I wish you and your families and your friends all the very best in 2016.  And have a very crafty new year.

tea and friends: bestest things in the world

I decided to enter this little gorjuss teacup and warm wishes holiday card in The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #19: Silver and Gold challenge and the Sweet Stampin Food and Drink Challenge.

Isn't staying warm with a ginormous pot of tea and enjoying time with someone special the absolute bestest?

make new friends, but keep the old; those are silver, these are gold - joseph parry

This snowfall and village card was one of the many card templates I crafted for the 2015 holiday season.  I am posting this one separately because I have entered it in The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #19: Silver and Gold.

The snowfall background is an indigoblu stamp (snowflake lace) embossed with stampendous aged embossing enamel. 

winter is a season of recovery and preparation - paul theroux

I designed and crafted this birthday card for my amazing aunt who is very much enamoured with everything winter.  I have to admit, I don't really get it.  Sure snow is pretty when you're inside and you're not expected to travel anywhere and you're in the mountains, however, winter when you're heading out to work and it's minus a bazillion and there's ice and the mush covers the back of the work pants you just washed and ironed is pretty darn crappy.

Regardless, this little gorjuss foxgirl and her adorable companions make my winter-grinch heart warm and happy.

a twinkie and mirror paper birthday

I crafted this card for a little guy who turned six this year.  Thought Twinkie had the right amount of enthusiasm.

 

 

I have taken to colouring on mirror paper lately and I strongly recommend you give it a go.  It's quick, simple and the results are spectacular.  Add a little glossy accents and the final product has tremendous wow factor.

it is not the strongest or the most intelligent of the species that survives, it is the one that is most adaptable to change - charles darwin

I created this steampunk mixed media card for a friend who is very much obsessed with everything steampunk.

 

 

 

This was definitely a fun card to build: so much mess! (Yes, short text means I'm pushing through to get all the 2015 projects posted before the year ends)

a little holiday cheer: santa and his caribou

I know. I know. It's been a long time.  Six months?  Reason for MIA: nothing exciting.  I took a mini break from crafting which turned into a much longer break from blogging.  But the bug is back and I have a whole bunch of crafts to share with you before the end of the year (can it be done? I'll try my bestest).

I created the Santa and Caribou card for the current holiday season (there's a Halloween tag in the cue).  Distress ink background, garland die cut out of silver foil coloured in with permanent ink markers and Santa and his caribou stamped, coloured and cut out.

 

 

I'm entering this card in a few challenges:

 

1.  DL.ART December Linky Challenge: Anything Goes

2.  Sweet Stampin' Christmas Challenge

 

 



mother's day x2

I have two wonderful mothers with tremendous style.  My mom loves everything New York and my mother-in-law is enamored with European style and Italy.  I decided to design their Mother's Day cards around Tim Holtz's runway and cityscapes stamp sets and Penny Black's venetian summer stamp with a bokeh background.

I inked up 130lb watercolour paper with peacock feathers, mermaid lagoon and cracked pistachio, sprayed it with water and heat set it.  Once dried I inked different sized circles with brilliance moonlight white and stamped the united states skyline directly onto the background.  This lovely runway fashionista was stamped onto 130lb white cardstock and embossed with clear embossing powder to give her a little more dimension and sheen.  I coloured her in with purple and copper permanent markers.

For the Italian fashionista, I inked the 130lb watercolour paper with abandoned coral and picked raspberry.  As I did for the U.S. card, I inked different sized circles with brilliance moonlight white and stamped Penny Black's venetian summer stamp onto 130lb white cardstock and embossed it with clear embossing powder and highlighted the hat and dress with purple and copper embossing powders.  Getting embossing powder to go where you want it to go is really a feat.  I painted on versamark, added the powder and with a second brush I brushed away the excess powder.  I love the results and it was well worth the time.

Happy Mother's Day!  Thank you to all the amazing women who on a daily basis make incredible differences in people's lives.  Your love and caring bring happiness, security and joy.  All the best xx

a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others - frank morgan

I created this little hedgehog tag for our 44 (yes, we have grown by two) Valentine tag swap.  I die cut the heart blooms out of a regular manila tag (size 8) and placed a pink tag (die cut)  behind.  Although these little Lawn Fawn hedgehugs do not need help in the cute department I added a bit of washi, stickles and sequins for interest.

I'm entering this tag in the The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #9: Think Pink.

happy new year! resolutions and rememberlutions for 2015 and january dt project

Resolutions have never been my strength.  They tend to be monster-sized goals that seize your attention for a few weeks until your best friend says to you, as you're carrying your gym bag out to the car with the greenest of green smoothies, there is a super sale at (you fill in the blank) and we will need humungous lattes to survive the rush.  Resolutions can be behemoths if you let them.  

But resolutions really are simply goals; we just tend to make them at a critical time when the world is bellowing sentiment of new beginnings and fresh starts.  Therefore we often take a reasonable, probably meaningful, goal and turn the little critter into a mountain of an accomplishment.

With that said, I have made two "resolutions" this year (I have many goals but two of which I really want to be mindful): (1) Organize better so that I may (2) spend more time with family and friends.  The first resolution may surprise those of you who know me.  I am quite the organized person.  Everything has a home and events and activities are always well planned and prepared.  What I need is a schedule.  

I read this article (Here’s What You Should Do Instead Of Making New Year’s Resolutions It’s called a “rememberlutions” jar and it’ll make you feel good all year) posted by Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine and decided to, in addition to my two resolutions, celebrate the smaller resolution successes as they come as well as all of the magnificent things, memories and accomplishments over the next twelve months by creating my own rememberlutions jar.

That coupled with our design team inspiration, I was off to the races.

I created a pendant for each of the four seasons of the year so that I have something to look forward to at the end of each season as the jar turns.

winter:

spring:

summer: 

autumn:

And here they are all together and assembled:

Whether you create resolutions this year or a rememberlutions jar, do what makes you feel good, makes you giggle and smile and let's you celebrate you all year long.

I'm entering my rememberlutions jar in the Sweet Stampin Challenge: New, Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #8: Something New for the New Year and Anything But A Card Challenge New Beginnings.  The rememberlutions jar is a new project created for the new year.